Days after the Centre made Aadhaar compulsory for students of government schools availing benefits, including midday meals, the identification card has been mandatory for students interested in making a career in sports.

According to a report in DNA, students of government schools in Jaipur have been asked to rush to get their Aadhaar cards made if they want to participate in the international, national or even district level tournaments.

The new rule by the department of secondary education has been announced in a circular issued to the district education officers (DEOs).

"The directorate has made it mandatory for students to produce Aadhaar card and documents like the mark sheet or domicile certificate before taking part in the tournaments," an official was quoted by DNA.

Earlier, the Union sports ministry had said that Aadhaar card may soon become necessary for player entries at the national-level meets conducted by sports federations.

As a first step, the ministry has asked National Sports Federations (NSFs) to follow the example of the School Games Federation of India (SGFI) and develop a system to accept competition entries online within three months. SGFI, which went on line years ago, plans to make Aadhaar compulsory from this season not only for entries to its national-level competitions but also for registration of new players.

Last month, the union human resource development ministry sent a letter to the Rajasthan chief secretary asking him to achieve 100% Aadhaar enrollment for students of government schools.

In Uttar Pradesh too, Aadhaar was made mandatory for school children to avail mid-day meals.

In a letter addressed to primary education officers in UP, the director of the State Council Of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Sarvendra Vikram Bahadur Singh, had warned that "if Aadhaar cards for all beneficiaries of the midday meal scheme are not made and their numbers not submitted to the state government, then the students without such cards will not be able to benefit from the different schemes of the government." He wrote that the education officers will be responsible for that.

Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Science and Technology had issued a notification in March that without Aadhaar registration a key set of scholarships will not be given to students. He said this will curb age fraud to a great extent.